Fun Days Out this Spring 2024

View art in the outdoors

In Suffolk, you can visit the spectacular Grade I listed gardens at Helmingham Hall. For added interest they will play host to a packed programme of returning and new events in 2024. The gardens reopen on 1 May 1 until 30 September. Throughout the 2024 season, the gardens will host David Harber at Helmingham, a curated collection of large-scale outdoor sculptures in copper, bronze, stone and steel by one of the UK’s leading garden sculptors. Each piece has been carefully selected by the team at David Harber in collaboration with Sophie Tollemache from Helmingham Hall to reflect and enhance specific areas of the gardens.

Prices: Tickets from £9 (children £4.50, under 5s free). Contact: www.helmingham.com

Head to Blackpool to encounter the fantastical, uniquely decorated, elephant sculptures at key locations across the town. Elmer the patchwork elephant is one of the most iconic, well-known elephants from a series of children's books that have entertained youngsters for over 30 years. The Elmer-inspired trail is sure to delight children and adults alike. The trail will fundraise for Brian House Children's Hospice and there will also be a trail of mini Elmers decorated by local schoolchildren. From 13th April – 9th June 2024.

Prices: Free. Contact: https://elmerblackpool.co.uk/

In Norfolk you can visit the house and award-winning gardens of Houghton Hall where, from 21 April – 31 October 2024, 100 life-size sculptures by Antony Gormley will be featured. Time Horizon is one of Antony Gormley's most spectacular large-scale installations.

Prices: Tickets: £22 when booked online; £24 at the gate, 18s and under go free. Students £10. Contact: www.houghtonhall.com

‘The Spirit of Malvern' Open Air painting competition - to be held on Bank Holiday Monday, 6th May - will see up to 100 artists set out into the town and hills to seek inspiration. The works of art they create will be displayed in a 'pop-up' public exhibition at the end of the day in the town's Priory Park. The 'Spirit of Malvern' competition is open to anyone over the age of 16, and is limited to 100 participants.

Prices: The entry fee is £20 (£15 for early bird sign ups). Contact: For details of how to sign up, go to https://creativesconnectweb.wixsite.com/malvern/events. The box office is open at http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/creatives-connect-malvern

Dance at a music festival

Kick off your shoes for one of the UK’s only music festivals to take place bang on the beach. Surf by day, party by night on Perranporth’s wave-lashed golden sands where world-class acts play to the beat of the ocean. This year the line-up includes McFly, Craig David and Ocean Colour Scene. A little less low key than August’s famous Boardmasters, in our eyes this really is the best festival for surfers and music lovers. It is taking place 17-19 May 2024.

Prices: Day tickets (18+) £48.00, under 18s £43.00. Contact: <a href="http://www.tunesinthedunes.co.uk
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From 3– 6 May 2024 is Ribble Valley Jazz and Blues Festival in Lancashire. Celebrate the first of May's bank holidays with a weekend of music in the Ribble Valley. This four-day festival showcases the very best of Jazz and Blues from around the world. With over 500 performers from many genres performing in Clitheroe and beyond, there will be plenty for everyone to enjoy and tap their feet to. 

The festival will also highlight up-and-coming local singers and bands, to help them perform to a larger audience, with well-loved home grown talent including Elbow Room, The Ribble Valley Jazz Big Band and Blufunk Syndicate returning.

Prices: £55. Contact: https://www.rvjazzfestival.co....

Visit some beautiful gardens

If you're planning a trip to the West Country this early May Bank Holiday, make sure you pay a visit to Toby's Garden Festival (Friday 3rd - Saturday 4th May 2024). Set in the stunning grounds of Powderham Castle, near Exeter and hosted by BBC Two Gardeners' World presenter Toby Buckland, it is two days of delight, celebration and inspiration for gardeners and lovers of the great outdoors. It's also just been awarded carbon neutral status, making it the first carbon neutral garden show in the world.

Prices: Tickets cost £13.50 per person, under 16s free (except VIP tickets), VIP tickets cost £90 per person. Contact: www.tobygardenfest.co.uk.

Covering 42 acres, the gardens at Alnwick, Northumberland, were opened to the public in 2001. It cost £60 million and is the biggest tourist attraction in the North-East of England. The most popular feature of the garden is the Poison Garden. Filled with poisonous plants, this area of the garden is also used for drug education. During the Second World War, 24 people died after eating boiled rhubarb leaves which allegedly taste similar to cabbage.

Prices: £22.00. Contact:
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